Downsizing - interesting read.

**cheshirecat** · 22nd December 2015, 08:09

I went from a CBX1000 to as Goldwing once, mainly London riding with weekend tours to Euro. Surprisingly the Wing was pretty good cross country with all that easy torque making for high averages in comfort (for eighties bikes). Made me think torque was king. Few years later ended up with a VF500 spending a few years London DRing. Brilliant bike and far safer at speed than the CBX now I have a 21 year old VFR750 and it does everything - shopping, commuting, touring, dog carrying - so well there is no desire to change up or down or even ride another bike, well perhaps the new Africa Twin.

**ruaphu** · 22nd December 2015, 15:47

The two up perspective as wifey and i ride two up all the time and our bikes have typically been set up for it.

Started off the large HP sportbikes (in hindsight poor choice really) the bigger the better. Pillioning, er nah, just horrid.

Had the medium size dual use types, yep cool at the time but ya got sick of not having any decent grunt on hand when ya need/want it. Pillioning, yep but the lack of grunt just makes it a hand full more often than not.

Back to sports tourer types, again the bigger the cubes the better life was and the bonus of better torque. And best still, Had the ability eat my licence with ease like sports bikes haha. Pillioning was fine with the extra cubes and grunt on tap. The more grunt the easier/safer it was to manage road life and the usual tasks we chuck at our machines.

Hated cruisers till i actually got onto mates large cubed bike. Err, what a handful in the corners, braking was a negotiation to say the least! Those issues aside, the up side was the comfort, the relaxed ride and most of all.............that oh so easy to use bucket loads of torque on tap at any time.

Yep thats what does it for us, large cubes and a tonne of torque with low engine revs, make for brilliant two up riding.

We've finally ended up with a large cubed, 171Nm torque monster cruiser that handles everything we throw at it two up.

Day trips are a breeze, touring is great, cafe trips via the back roads still fun.

My usual 85km round trip work commute is done with ease no stress and 40mpg

In our view for two up riding ya just can't beat cubic capacity for ease of use, comfort, touring and playing silly buggers it just makes sense. We'll pass on the smaller capacity machines.

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**Autech** · 24th December 2015, 09:21

To sum up this whole thread "Horses for courses"

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**McWild** · 24th December 2015, 14:57

Originally Posted by Autech

"My bike loan was cut in half, but so was my ego. Right? I can’t be a man with a small bike, can I?"

Not ego in my experience of smaller bikes, as nothing inflates the head more than caning a guy on a big bike on a shitty 250. Especially and exceptionally shitty 250 like a Hobag.

Completely agree with this. I never had more of an ego on bikes than on my RGV250 when I was busy buying into all the "A good rider on a small bike will always", pinning it everywhere, you don't need more than xxx CCs for the road type of stuff. Little bikes have a way of making you feel like you have to thrash it everywhere and, moreover, that it's ok to thrash it everywhere because it's a little bike.

Awesome getting a bike with a nicer torque curve and taking a fucking chill pill.

**sidecar bob** · 24th December 2015, 18:01

The bloke talks like you can only have one or the other. (He also talks about a loan as if that's normally part of having a bike too)
I have a two stroke 125 sports type bike parked next to a 1200 adventure bike, with a 675 Daytona nearby & a few classics. All are great, but I wouldn't like to have to choose one.

**AllanB** · 24th December 2015, 20:21

Originally Posted by sidecar bob

The bloke talks like you can only have one or the other. (He also talks about a loan as if that's normally part of having a bike too)
I have a two stroke 125 sports type bike parked next to a 1200 adventure bike, with a 675 Daytona nearby & a few classics. All are great, but I wouldn't like to have to choose one.

Most of us mortals can only have one.

So if circumstances dictated that you could only park one bike in your garage - what would you pick?

**Mike.Gayner** · 24th December 2015, 20:31

Out of my 1050 and my 350, I'm riding my 1050 95% of the time.

**Zamiam** · 24th December 2015, 20:36

Well you could go 1690cc with the performance of a 250cc and have the best of both worlds like me - just get a Harley lol

**Autech** · 24th December 2015, 22:59

Originally Posted by Zamiam

Well you could go 1690cc with the performance of a 250cc and have the best of both worlds like me - just get a Harley lol

So true! I remember many an occasion on the road where a Harley was only fractionally quicker than my Hyosung out of a corner (just enough to make overtaking them difficult) yet miles slower on the corner. Basically I would get held up for ages as every time we hit a small straight the guy would accelerate enough to stop me getting past. Fucking awful! Trick was a plan ahead, sit back hammer a corner hard enough n slingshot past IF there was no car coming

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**AllanB** · 24th December 2015, 23:05

Originally Posted by Zamiam

Well you could go 1690cc with the performance of a 250cc and have the best of both worlds like me - just get a Harley lol

Haha.

Is that why the HD's ride in packs?

**jasonu** · 25th December 2015, 06:34

Originally Posted by sidecar bob

The bloke talks like you can only have one or the other. (He also talks about a loan as if that's normally part of having a bike too)
I have a two stroke 125 sports type bike parked next to a 1200 adventure bike, with a 675 Daytona nearby & a few classics. All are great, but I wouldn't like to have to choose one.

You must be really rich just to afford the rego government gouge.

**nzspokes** · 25th December 2015, 06:45

I guess that one reason I like my VTR so much. I can run it hard through the gears without ending up going way to fast. And it has personality. I had a Hornet 900 which was boredom on wheels. Its not the fastest but with some Ohlins and Racetech it handles well.

Doesnt sound half bad either.

I quite like our Bandit 1200 as well, with a few carb mods it has a great top end and sounds good. Again few suspension mods and it keeps up on the twistys.

And both are worth less than the yearly depreciation of "New Good" bikes.

**sidecar bob** · 25th December 2015, 09:26

Originally Posted by jasonu

You must be really rich just to afford the rego government gouge.

It's cheaper to take the fine.
To answer previous question, if I really had to choose only one, it would be the R1200gs. It's so useful compared to the rest, which are just toys by comparison.

**Voltaire** · 25th December 2015, 09:35

Originally Posted by sidecar bob

It's cheaper to take the fine.
To answer previous question, if I really had to choose only one, it would be the R1200gs. It's so useful compared to the rest, which are just toys by comparison.

1976 bikes are now under a hundy a year now

( wonder how long the roll over date will go for, the Poms stopped in for 1973)

Hmmm if I could only have one bike I'd build up a mono BMW 1000 ADV bike using a mid 70's donor bike.